Please note that the copyright for this course project is retained by the instructor.

This case study was used in an introductory, required course on occupational and environmental medicine for Phase III medical students at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine. The students read a section on repetitive strain injury in "A Syllabus for Alberta" and answer a set of questions pertaining to the differential diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome.

This study was conducted in a workplace most people would consider "safe." Answer the following questions about occupational repetitive strain injuries:

1. Why are the estimates of prevalence of repetitive strain injuries likely to be biased?

2. What employers in Alberta are likely to experience similar problems among their employees?

3. What is the differential diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS)? (Name five conditions other than repetitive strain injury that can be associated with the disorder.)

4. What is the "gold standard" for diagnosis of CTS? Is it the most sensitive test available?

5. Some people have said that occupational repetitive strain injuries - especially CTS - do not really exist. Based on the internal evidence from this study, what do you think?

6. On a scale of 1 to 10, how interesting did you find this material?

This document was last modified on 06/14/2000 03:07:51 PM

This resource was acquired by CEEM (Consortium for Environmental Education in Medicine), a program of Second Nature, under the auspices of a NIEHS grant to gather and disseminate environmental health educational resources over the internet in order to help medical and allied health sciences faculty identify, locate and use resources for incorporating environment and health perspectives into their curricula. CEEM has authorized the use of these materials on this website for archival purposes. Please note that the copyright for this material is retained by the instructor and/or
contributing institution.